For the wind energy industry, capacity is defined as the maximum energy that can be produced. As the industry moves to its second stage of its still nascent development, there is currently a rush to expand capacity at most wind farms throughout the United States. This is being accomplished by (1) adding wind turbines (or increasing density) to a farm’s footprint, (2) modernization of existing turbines by retrofitting components, or the entirety, of wind farms, and, last, (3) optimizing the equipment through, among other initiatives, wake steering or better site planning (also referred to as “siting”).

Increasing the megawatt (MW) production at each wind farm is the ultimate goal of building capacity. Adding density and better equipment along with better wake steering and siting results in synergistic, exponential production gains. The financial outcome of these gains is made even greater through the potential to earn repowering production tax credits (PTCs) and renewable energy credits (RECs).

Find your Wind Farm on this Map:

Uncovering the best capacity building opportunities requires an understanding of what type of equipment exists throughout the United States. Turbines of 1.5 MW rated capacity or less are prime candidates for a capacity upgrade.

VayuAI has compiled data on wind farms in the United States, with emphasis on those containing 10,6161 turbines of between 0.5 and 1.5 MW capacity, which today might be defined as “small to medium sized turbines.” This information is displayed through the interactive map below. Hover over the dots to identify the windfarm. Click and drag to create a window that zooms in to see details on individual turbines. Turbines are color coded by megawatt production.

Many of these turbines were erected more than a decade ago in locations with very favorable wind characteristics without considerations for wake steering. Modernizing these turbines with updated parts or replacing these turbines to rated capacities of greater than 3.0 megawatts with the benefits of better siting and real-time, cloud-based wake steering can yield impressive returns on new capital expenditures even before factoring PTCs and RECs.

Aging Turbines

The histogram (graph) below shows when these turbines were erected. This is important to reveal which farms may be coming off their 10-year PTC earning cycle. These farms will see the full economic upside to a repowering plan.

Economic realities right now point to an historic ease of availability of capital for investment, making this the prime time to upgrade existing turbines and increasing windfarm density, and improving the interconnectedness of these turbines by wake steering optimization solutions.